There are a number of problems with conventional credit card usage. Conventional credit cards can be subjected to fraudulent transactions, and the risk of loss can be fairly significant. For example, if a credit card with a very high credit limit is used to purchase a low value item, then the potential for loss can be fairly substantial. If, for example, a credit card with an available $10,000 credit limit is used to purchase a $2 sandwich at a restaurant. If an employee at the restaurant engages in fraudulent behavior and wants to steal the credit card number associated with the credit card, then $9998 of available credit will be exposed to potential fraudulent use.
One solution to this problem is to allow a user to generate a temporary card with a limited transaction value and/or expiration period. However, there are limitations to this mechanism. First, the user will need to manually generate a new temporary card for each transaction. Second, the user must always be connected to a remote host computer (thus needing a network connection and connection to the bank website/service) to generate the temporary card number. Further, since the temporary card is not a true credit card, it is limited in its use
Embodiments of the invention address these and other problems, individually and collectively.